The former Conservative minister Ann Widdecombe likened the UK’s departure from the EU to the emancipation of slaves, as she became the first Brexit party MEP to speak in the new European parliament.
With her leader, Nigel Farage, on her right, Widdecombe said the recent negotiations among the EU’s heads of state and government over the leadership of the bloc’s institutions confirmed the need for Britain to leave.
“It’s not democratic at all and that is just one of many reasons why Britain is right to be leaving this place, hopefully on Halloween,” Widdecombe told a plenary session of the European parliament in Strasbourg. “If that’s this place’s idea of democracy that’s a serious betrayal of every country represented here.”
Widdecombe, who was criticised earlier this month for claiming that science might “produce an answer” to being gay, said the UK’s departure from the EU equated to a liberation.
She said: “There is a pattern consistent throughout history of oppressed people turning on their oppressors, slaves against their owners, the peasantry against the feudal barons, colonies, against empires and that is why Britain is leaving … It doesn’t matter which language you use, we are leaving and we are pleased to be going. Nous allons, wir gehen, we are off!”
The Brexit party’s MEP for the South East, Alexandra Phillips, tweeted: “Tears in my eyes. She represents the ignored majority. Brave and principled. Our Ann.”
Germany’s defence minister, Ursula von der Leyen, 60, was nominated on Tuesday by the leaders, including Theresa May, to replace Jean-Claude Juncker as the next European commission president but she will only take up the role if a majority of MEPs vote in favour of her candidacy.
Widdecombe’s comments followed a speech by Donald Tusk, the president of the European council, who asked parliament to back the leaders’ nomination of Von der Leyen in the commission and Christine Lagarde, as president of the European central bank, breaking more than 60 years of a male monopoly of the leadership of those institutions.
“This is a very positive change,” Tusk said. “Europe is not only talking about women, it is choosing women. I hope that this choice will inspire many girls and women to fight for their beliefs and passions. And I also hope that it will inspire the European parliament in its decisions.”
Speaking to the chamber after Widdecombe, the Liberal Democrat MEP Martin Horwood said: “Can I tell you Mr President that what you heard from that back corner does not represent the views of everyone in the United Kingdom.”
